Character Loyalty

[Maximum Bert]

You know how it is your playing a character and you know they suck and that you would be better off playing someone else but you stick with them anyway just because you like them. Or maybe its the reverse and they are ridiculously good and make things too easy but again you dont change even though you would like more challenge.

Fighters in particular inspire a lot of character loyalty with me and can even make playing the game difficult as the character I want to play dosent fit my style and I am naturally more proficient with other members of the cast but again I dont change, simply because I want to be this character and win with them even if it means losing over and over.

In RPGs I also have favourite party members I dont want to change out even if their inclusion is counter productive or not needed.

So how far do you go for character loyalty? I realise like most things it depends on the game but would you change from a character if they sucked but you really liked them or were ridiculously powerful and trivialised the game but again you are fond of them.

I personally tend to stick with a character I like as I have more fun that way even if at times it annoys me that I have given myself an uphill struggle.

And heres a few characters I tend to stick to when playing or have in my team at all times

Ayane (Doa)
Makoto Nanaya (Blazblue)
Blanka (SF)
Siegfried (SC)
Tifa (FFVII, Dissidia, Ehrgeiz etc)
Jane Turner (Valkyria Chronicles)

That will do anyway I am interested to hear what others think do you tend to find characters you like and stick it out or do you tend to just play the game the way suits you regardless of characters, teams etc.

 

[Zhukov]

In MOBAs and similar competitive game I just go for the pragmatic choice. If I like something else about the character then that's just a bonus.

But in RPGs I will happily indulge my impractical loyalties. The best example I can think of is really liking Jack from Mass Effect 2 and taking her along a lot despite her being pretty meh in combat. Doubly so considering that my favourite character class is the Vanguard which renders Jack almost entirely obsolete. I made it work though, her ammo ability is the best in the game and having two shockwaves does wonders for crowd control so long as you're not playing on anything harder than 'veteran' difficulty.

 

[JimB]

Vivi from Final Fantasy IX.

I love him to death, and I think the game's story is way more about him than anyone else. Hell, in terms of how he relates to the story, he's what Tidus tries and fails to be. But to be effectual in combat (at least after disc one when you've dug up his surprisingly power oak staff), he has to not only spend a limited resource (MP) but allocate his abilities to expensive offense-enhancers that leave his defense hurting at low levels, and he has few HPs for what seems like less of an attempt at game balance than an adherence to the trope that wizards are weaklings. His powers allow him to target an enemy's vulnerability, but hell, that's only useful during a boss fight, because standard enemies are weak enough that it's just easier to pound 'em with physical attacks.

 

[King of Asgaard]

As my avatar may give away, I love me some Zaeed Massani. I don't know how powerful he is compared to the other Mass Effect 2 party members, but I just couldn't bring myself to keep him out of the party, partly because of the voice (RIP Robin Sachs) and partly because of his loyalty mission.

I tend to main Asuka and Yoshimitsu in Tekken, and again, it's only because I like their style. Whether or not they're actually competitive is beyond me, but they're the ones I always gravitate towards.

Jade Empire is where it gets tricky, however. Barring Sky, who's a massive tool, and Silk Fox, who's a massive ****, I quite like ALL of the others, though, I usually stick to either Dawn Star for the chi restoration (and dat ass, am I right, lads? ) or Wild Flower for her... talent, and because the side quest concerning her is rather compelling.

 

[Urgh76]

I agree whole heartedly with Tifa, and couldn't bring myself to form a party that didn't include Sabin in it. (FF VI)

Oddly though, it seems that I'm more inclined to stick with characters that are special to me like that where the party choices aren't that wide.

I mean take a game like Fire Emblem, and you find yourself using almost everyone in your arsenal periodically, even though there's around 4 or 5 times the amount of characters.

Also I could never leave Rydia hanging in FF IV. She would definitely always be with me.

 

[Tactical Pause]

Oh, I do that sort of thing all the time. The best example I can think of is that I played all the way through Dragon Age 2 with a party of 3 mages and Varric. I did this because I love playing a mage, and my favorite characters were mages as well (shut up, I liked Anders).

Needless to say, the party was a bit squishy, and it made a lot of encounters far, far more difficult than they needed to be.

 

[Alcaste]

Freya in FF9. No matter what, she's always in until the very end. Sure she could stand to be fleshed out more, but there's just something about her that makes me use her in every playthrough.

In a similar vein, it is incredibly rare that I don't play with Edwin in the Baldur's Gate games. Particularly the second, since you can have both him and Minsc without toooo much trouble.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I'm full of character loyalty, if I like a character I will play them until the end of time, tier lists be damned. Evidence? I played Phoenix Wright in UMVC3 for over a year nonstop. You know that one low tier character you would like to play but s/he's just too hard? I laugh at you. I couldn't imagine someone worse than Phoenix Wright in a fighting game.

As for MOBAs, I do have some character loyalty but not as much. Especially in DOTA 2 where the majority of characters have no personality whatsoever. I'll still stand by my precious Antimage forever though, even if it may make people hate me for playing the most anti-fun character ever conceived.

Seriously his entire style is that he takes all of your fun away then slaps you in the face with all the fun he's taken converted into damage. Fuck magic, magic sucks.

 

[Worgen]

Freya in FF9. No matter what, she's always in until the very end. Sure she could stand to be fleshed out more, but there's just something about her that makes me use her in every playthrough.

Fucken agree. I always had her with me and she won the game for me, the rest of my party was down and she only had one hit left, she was in her super form so she got a few attacks up in the air, her last attack before she came down and would be killed, took out the last boss.

 

[P912]

Mass Effect with Tali and Garrus. We defeated Saren together, we stormed the Collector Base together, and we fought to the Citadel together. Tali Zorah vas Normandy and Garrus Vakarian every time.

Apart from that, I never really got that attached to the companions that I would want them around all the time. Fallout also had good writing, but Mass Effect seems to be the only game where the level of characterization was of a high enough level that I could pick favorites.

I have been playing as Adewale in the Freedom Cry DLC more than I have been playing with Edward in the main game recently, purely out of freeing slaves giving my actions a more compelling context than getting rich, but that seems different to what others here are describing. And I'm sure once I have explored every nook and cranny of Port Au Prince, a bigger game world will drive me back to Captain Kenway.

 

[Hero of Lime]

When it comes to Smash Bros. I always use Link. I am pretty great when it comes to using Link despite the fact that most hardcore Smash players would probably scoff at using Link since he is in a "lower tier." Which I think is a ridiculous, if you are good enough with any character, you can beat anyone with anything.

 

[Auron225]

Honestly? I try and keep a balance as much as I can. I like me some variety more than anything else; including using my favourites all the time. I mean; I'll usually use my favourites for the final boss & stuff but I'm happy enough to use characters I care less for just to mix things up.

I think Tali & Garrus came on a handful more missions throughout Mass Effect 1/2 but it's not like I used them constantly or anything.

Used to rotate between Luigi, Fox and Link in SSBB but it got to the point where I was more likely to pick Random just to make things interesting.

 

[Ikasury]

TOTALLY... *w* i have my characters, i like to stick with them... though i 'will' level everyone up, as usually there's som inane need for them... but once that lvling is done, back to the bin you go!!

my parties (as i mostly do RPG-type-dealies)
Xenogears - Rico, Elly, Citan (Emerelda for details later) Rico is SLOW AS FUCK~ but i love him to no end :3 if i didn't have to have Fei in certain places, i'd just have him bossing up the place~

Legend of Dragoon- ROSE!! *glomps* so much love... so, so much love... and Kongol as back up as i can't swap out Dart, if i could, it would be for Meru...

Final Fantasy X- LULU!! *glomps* (you may see a pattern here) and Khimari! *pets* kitty... and Yuna as lead~ because nothing is funnier then *****-slapping someone with the proverbial 'white mage' XD

Final Fantasy 7- as much as i HATED this game, i have a special love for RedXIII, Yuffie, and Vincent, if i could, that'd be my team, screw everyone else...

Digital Devil Sage! - Argilla!! *glomps* mouth-boobs!! Gale!! *glomps* switch-foot!! and Ciello!! yea that's my crew and sticking to it :3

Persona/SMT Series- (what demons do i wuv most?) Makami, Senri, Shiisha, Okuninushi, Inugami, BARONG!! and aside from Barong most of those are below lvl40 demons... i will endure the pain for my wuvs *w*

Dragon Age: Morrigan, Balthezar (dog) and Alistair, that's my party and i'm sticking to them~

Mass Effect: for 1 it was Wrex and Tali, for 2 it was Jack and Grunt, for 3 it was Liara and Javik...

i could probably go on, but eh, no need... obviously i agree with the 'character loyalty', but i MAKE IT WORK!!

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Oh, I do that sort of thing all the time. The best example I can think of is that I played all the way through Dragon Age 2 with a party of 3 mages and Varric. I did this because I love playing a mage, and my favorite characters were mages as well

(shut up, I liked Anders).

You liked Anders? Well, nobody's perfect.

Merrill was always, ALWAYS in my party. If I could only take one character with me, it was always her. Every playthrough. I love that adorable, dorky elf. And when she broke after her questline finished, I felt so sorry for her. Just wanted to hold her...er, um, this is getting awkward. Moving on.

FFVII: Tifa, Yuffie, and Aeris.
FFVIII: Selphie!
X: Rikku. If you don't like Rikku, I don't want to know you.

Xenosaga: KOS-MOS was always there. Always stomping enemies.

Suikoden: Kasami. Same with Suikoden II. I love that ninja girl, and the way she tries so hard to flirt with the hero is adorable.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I agree whole heartedly with Tifa, and couldn't bring myself to form a party that didn't include Sabin in it. (FF VI)

Oddly though, it seems that I'm more inclined to stick with characters that are special to me like that where the party choices aren't that wide.

I mean take a game like Fire Emblem, and you find yourself using almost everyone in your arsenal periodically, even though there's around 4 or 5 times the amount of characters.

Also I could never leave Rydia hanging in FF IV. She would definitely always be with me.

I like your choice of characters I always had Sabin and Terra in my party in VI whenever possible Sabin in particular was just awesome. I dont have as much attachment to Rydia but for me Golbez stole the show he was just the perfect villain right up until the ending and then he flubbed it damn I was so annoyed great game though and I like the avatar.

Lulu in Final Fantasy 10.

Even though by the end of the game, Yuna is MUCH better than Lulu (especially if you up her attack, it allows her to hit 99999 on every punch with Anima's overdrive). I really like Lulu. She's a big sister/mother figure to the group, she's sassy and she always directed the group towards the best plan of action. Also, her quips she says the first time she uses any black magic spell is more than enough reason to use her.

If only they'd balance out FFX a bit. I got to the point in the game where most of my characters had made their way most of the way around the sphere grid. Tidus was hitting about 100'000 damage with his blitz ace, Anima was doing about 300'000 damage with his overdrive and Wakka's attack reels were just off the charts.

I liked Lulu but I ended up with Wakka (because of his godlike limit break 12x 99999 damage hits er yes pls) Yuna because I liked her and she was pretty damn handy with her Aeon summoning and Auron because I liked him although his useless (late on) limit breaks means he not the best choice when all the stats are maxed out on all your characters (except HP which stopped at about 20000 I think although it is possible to get it a little higher if you really wanted but I kinda found that pointless as you can curbstomp Penance at this point easily) I think Tidus would have been the optimal choice then because of his multi hitting limit break. I dont know why I dropped Lulu as she was definitely one of my favourite characters maybe I will keep her next time I go through its just im not sure I can face replacing all non +4 nodes on the grid capturing every monster and getting all the ultimate weapons again although I know I dont have to it would feel wrong if I didnt.

 

[Ieyke]

I tend to use Luigi a lot in the multiple character Mario games.

I tend to use Ike and Snake a lot in Smash Bros. Will be using MegaMan probably almost exclusively in the new one.

In Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 I tend to stick with Doctor Doom, Iron Fist, Doctor Strange, Morrigan and Amaterasu.

Left 4 Dead I stick with Zoey or Ellis.

TF2 I tend towards the Spy, despite not being especially great as a Spy while I totally wreck shop as most of the other characters.

Diablo 2 I'm always a Necromancer or Druid. D3 I was a Witch Doctor.

Final Fantasy Tactics I ALWAYS have my female White Mage/Calculator.

Mortal Kombat I almost entirely stick with the ninjas, but especially the classics - Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Noob Saibot.

Pokemon I often use Kyogre, Mew, Mewtwo, and Ho-oh when possible.

In Borderlands I'm always Roland, in Borderlands 2 I'm either Zer0 or Gaige.

In Mario Kart I think I'm usually Daisy.

 

[Catfood220]

People always slag her off, but Nephenee will always make my team in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn. I don't know peoples problem with her, sure she sucks to begin with but level her up and she kicks ass. Another one I have a soft spot for is Jill despite the fact that Haar is a better Wyvern Rider. Again, level her up and she is pretty good and I like her more as a character.

I am always Chun Li in the Street Fighter games, I like bouncing all over people. Its a shame that everyone else online would prefer to be Ryu/Ken/Sagat and just spam fireballs and dragon punch.

The Skies of Arcadia fan in me means that Vyse and Aika are always in my squad in Valkyria Chronicles. It just makes sense seeing as Fina is the medic. Also Dallas for some reason.

In Tales of Symphonia my team will be always include Raine and Genis as their magic is pretty kick ass. The last spot on the team is up for grabs but will usually be Kratos, Sheena or Zelos.